Rail-joint.



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Patented Aug. 27, l90l.

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P. E; GAVIN.

RAIL JOINT.

(Application filed Apr. 20, 1901.)

( No Model.)

WITNESSES:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PATRICK E. GAVIN, OF ROCHESTER, NElY YORK.

RAIL-JOINT.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 681 ,449, dated August 27, 1901. Application filed April 20, 1901. Serial No. 56,721. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PATRICK E. GAVIN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Rochester, in the county of Monroe, in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Rail-Joints, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to the species of railway-rail joints in which the meeting ends of the rails are formed with diagonal vertical faces lapping one on the side of the other, so as to cause them jointly to present a continuous tread over the junction of the two rails.

The object of this invention is, first, to join the rails by overlapping diagonal faces without producing at the ends of said diagonal faces attenuated tongues or fins, which are liable to become spread outward from the joint by the weight and jar of the cars and engines passing over the joint. Said spreading of the rails at the joint thereof causes the attenuated tongues or fins to project from the inner side of the head of the rail and incur the danger of allowing the flange of the wheel to enter between the side of one rail and projecting portion of the adjacent rail, and thus throw the wheel from the track and also destroy the joint of the rails, and, secondly, the object is to securely unite the aforesaid rails by means of angle plates or fish plates clamped onto the sides of the rails by means of bolts passing through said rails without subjecting the central portions of the bolts to shearing strain incident to the expansion and contraction of the rails and the longitudinal creeping of the same and also without im pairing the strength of the overlapping portions of the rails.

To these ends the invention consists in the novel details of construction and combination of parts, as hereinafter fully described, and set forth in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a side view of a portion of a railway-track equipped with myimproved rail-joint. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a transverse section on line X X in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a detail plan view of an end portion of a rail, and Fig. 5 is a face view of the end of the rail.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A A denote the two meeting rails, which comprise the usual heads a a, webs cl cl, and bases 6' e. The meeting ends of the rails are formed at their central portions with vertical diagonal cuts extending part way across the heads a a of the rails, thereby producing overlapping faces a a, and are formed with right-angled cuts extending from the edges of the rails part way into the sides of the heads and meeting thereat the ends of the diagonal cuts, thereby producing abutting shoulders I) and c on the heads and also abutting faces I) b on the bases e e of the rails.

The abutting shoulders,however,on the heads constitute one of the salient features of my invention, inasmuch as they obviate the formation of fins or attenuated tongues on the ends of the rails, which are found to exist in joints in which the diagonal cuts extend entirelyacross the heads of the rails. Said overlap= ping faces jointly present a continuous tread over the junction of the two rails, thereby re= lieving the cars and engines passing over the joint from all jar and at the same time preserving the ends of the rails.

B B denote the angle-plates or splicingplates, which extend across the joint, and through said plates and rails pass the usual bolts f f, whereby the rails are rigidly clamped together. The bolt-holes in the webs of the rails are of the usual horizontally-elongated form (not necessary to be shown) to allow for the expansion and contraction of the rails, and they are disposed remote from the joint, so as not to Weaken the rails at that point, and, furthermore, to prevent shearing of bolts at their central portions incident to said expansion and contraction of the rails and their longitudinal creeping. The lower edges of said angle-plates B B are provided with a plurality of notches g g for the reception of the usual spikes h h, (shown in dotted lines,)

which spikes are driven in the usual and well-known manner into the wooden crosstiest' i, (also shown in dotted lines.) Said notches are of sufficient lengths to allow the spikes to bear against the side edges of the Ice rail-bases, as clearly shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings.

While I prefer to employ the angle-plates shown and described for uniting the two rails, still at the same time it will be understood that the usual and well-known fishplates may be used for the purpose, in which latter case I provide the aforesaid notches in the rail-bases to receive the spikes. (Not necessary to be shown.)

What I claim as my invention is- In a railway-rail joint the meeting ends of the rails formed with overlapping vertical faces extending diagonally part way across the head portions of the rails and vertical abutting faces extending at right angles from the edges of the bases of the rails to the ends of the diagonal faces, the diagonally-faced portions of the rails being ilnperforate and maintained intact and clamped-together by angular plates extending across the joint and beyond it at opposite sides of the rails and imperforate throughout the length of said joint and bolts passing through the angleplates and intervening webs of the rails remote from the rail-joint as set forth.

PATRICK E. GAVIN.

\Vitn esses:

WM. F. \VATTERs, R. E. WESTB RY. 

